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All official correspondence or requests regarding the City of Seattle should be sent to me at the above email link.

Current Readings

Robert D. Putnam: Our Kids: The American Dream in CrisisSobering insight into the decline of the American dream among lower income families and what can be done about it. Early investments are key, such as high-quality preschool and home visitation programs. Seattle gets it right.

Joe Guppy: My Fluorescent GodThis is a compelling, funny, tragic and revealing personal story from a Seattle writer about his plunge into mental crisis. Joe is honest and direct. His experience is his own, but could happen to any of us.

Robert Coles: Lives We Carry with Us: Profiles of Moral CourageColes is the former Harvard professor who wrote "Children in Crisis" for which he won the Pulitzer Prize. He profiles 12 individuals here, including Bruce Springsteen, Dorothy Day, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Simone Weil. Good stories of compelling leadership.

December 20, 2012

Mental Health Services

I received a number of responses to my recent newsletter
on gun safety measures I believe we should adopt in Washington State; many
highlighted the need for a renewed focus on mental health treatment services.

My newsletter focused on the work of Professor Richard Florida at the
University of Toronto who has written about the intersection of gun safety
regulations and deaths by firearms. But, there are clearly other factors we
must consider as well in the wake of tragedies like the one last Friday in
Connecticut. Focusing in from broader gun violence to the mass shooting
incidents in the last year, we have seen a trend of perpetrators who struggle
with mental illness. (It is also worth noting, as
this New York Times article does,
that the vast majority of perpetrators of violence do not suffer from mental
illness, and those who do suffer from psychiatric disabilities are more likely to
be victims rather than perpetrators of violence.)

It’s shameful that as a society we do not adequately care for those
with mental health challenges. Just walk around the streets of our downtown
neighborhoods and you will see what I mean; struggling individuals suffering
mental health problems and many of them with nowhere to turn. These issues are
very complicated, but we know what can help—providing on-demand treatment
services.

I’m no expert, but many professionals have told me that individuals
suffering a mental health crisis will sometime have moments of clarity when
they recognize their need and will reach out for help. It’s at this precise
moment that we must have services available. It doesn’t work to listen to their
plea and then place them on a waiting list for the next week or month when
services become available. It’s at that specific moment that we should welcome
the individual and begin immediate treatment and care.

Yes, this level of on-demand services costs a lot of money, but it is
long overdue. When we deinstitutionalized the mental health system decades ago,
we never built an adequate network of community-based mental health clinics to
take their place. So we already pay a lot in increased costs for emergency room
visits, police, and the disruptions caused by street disorder when these
individuals are not cared for in appropriate ways. State budget cuts have
harmed mental health programs and we need to reverse this trend. State
government should put our money where it will work most effectively, up front
with the kind of services these neighbors of ours deserve.

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Mental Health Services

I received a number of responses to my recent newsletter
on gun safety measures I believe we should adopt in Washington State; many
highlighted the need for a renewed focus on mental health treatment services.

My newsletter focused on the work of Professor Richard Florida at the
University of Toronto who has written about the intersection of gun safety
regulations and deaths by firearms. But, there are clearly other factors we
must consider as well in the wake of tragedies like the one last Friday in
Connecticut. Focusing in from broader gun violence to the mass shooting
incidents in the last year, we have seen a trend of perpetrators who struggle
with mental illness. (It is also worth noting, as
this New York Times article does,
that the vast majority of perpetrators of violence do not suffer from mental
illness, and those who do suffer from psychiatric disabilities are more likely to
be victims rather than perpetrators of violence.)